Bad experience with new fish

[Kannu]

I have a well planted tank that has been going strong for well over 7 years which had more plants than fish. So I recently purchased 8 rummy nosed tetras from Maidenhead aquatics in Ascot. A week later I find that all the tetras have contracted white spot. I moved them all to a hospital tank but I guess I was too late. I lost 6 of them the following day and now I have also lost a very old occupant of my tank, my SAE whos been with us for the past several years.

When I called up the fish store to tell them of my predicament they said that they cant help as its more than 48hrs after the sale

I travelled to this store (around 25miles) just because I had heard a lot of good about it.

 

[Henry]

White spot tends to occur when the fish is stressed. Are your water parameters wildly different to those of the fish shop's?
You might have been better off keeping the affected fish where they were. Comfortable fish are healthy fish. Being moved from tank to tank won't do any fish any good. Feed them well and keep your water healthy, and white spot will always disappear.

Very sorry to hear about your SAE.

 

[oldbloke]

RMT's are not as robust as a lot of species as far as I am aware.
I think it may have been best to treat them where they were as said and also if you do move them do the drip method thing. All great info for you now!
It seems there are some who believe that whitespot is everywhere, just waiting for a stressed fish to come along.

 

[Michael W]

Since you have a spare tank next time you could perhaps quarantine your newly purchased fish. This will ensure that the new fish could be observed and treated for illnesses without it spreading to the occupants in your main tank. After a few weeks if all look well then you could transfer them over.

 

[ian_m]

I too have had fish deaths (years ago though) with new fish from Southampton branch. My tank had been running fine for years, and the Neon Tetras (including the existing ones) all got white spot within days and some died. Also the new Silver Sharks, with no sign of white spot all keeled over and died later...shop was not interested, "my tank must have been unclean".

For a while I took to half dosing the tank with anti-white spot couple of days before getting new fish and that certainly improved survival rates.

All my last fish came from Aquajardin Southampton, and whilst possibly more expensive all fish are still all here 18 months later.

 

[roadmaster]

We don't know what water parameter's are/were,how long fish were in transport to your tank, acclimation process.
Would not be so quick to blame fish store ,who might have had these fish for week's without issues ,or they just arrived at fish store.(would not buy fish that just arrived)
In any event,,quarantine tank can help limit the spread of many parasitic,bacterial pathogen's.
I keep an extra sponge filter and pump laying around and small heater and a couple week's before I am to get new fish,,I place the sponge filter in established ,mature tank to get bacterial colony established on the sponge and new fishes are then placed in small rubber tub or ten gal tank with the seeded sponge filter and heater.
If after three week's ,the fish appear fine,,THEN I place them in my populated tank's.
I should think this would not be too tough to do ,and can save you from having planted tank full of sick fishes,or unplanted tank for that matter.

 

[Henry]

I'm of the opinion that, if the fish are kept from sale by the shop for the first 5 days or so, fish can be put straight into an established aquarium without any problem (assuming proper acclimation procedures are followed). Using air hose to introduce new water into the bag allows the fish time to adjust. Assuming their new home has healthy water, they should recover from any stress related ailments shortly after.

 

[ian_m]

I have noticed over the years that most decent fish shops the quality of fish, cleanliness of tanks and quality of the tank water has greatly improved. Most now have UV sterilisers, ozone generators, use mixed RO and water to keep water parameters constant as well auto-top/drain their tank water. Some even have protein skimmers, which from what I have seen generate quite a lot of scum.